A closer look at the Black experience is now at Chico State. The traveling exhibit Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press features a selection of prints by 17 contemporary Black artists from Paulson Fontaine Press in Berkeley.
The exhibition is currently on display for a final week at the Janet Turner Museum.
Rachel Skokowski, the museum’s director of galleries and a curator, said the exhibit showcases a breadth of experiences, exploring themes of history, identity and spirituality.
“There's just so many levels of meaning,” Skokowski said. “I think there'll be a lot for people to engage with.”
As the exhibit’s name suggests, some of the works are deeply personal.
“There are some incredible prints with family photographs or quilts made from fabric that's been passed down through generations,” Skokowski said.
One example is MacArthur Binion’s, which uses family portraits.
Other works draw on larger political moments, like the Los Angeles Watts Riots, which inspired featured artist Edgar Arceneaux’s work.
What unifies the seemingly broad set of prints beyond their focus on the African American experience is that they are all made using Intaglio printing. This is a process in which an image is cut, scratched or etched below the surface of a flat plate made of copper, zinc or aluminum, and the grooves hold the ink. It’s a technique the Fontaine Press specializes in.
“It's kind of incredible because when you walk into the gallery, you would never think that all of these prints were made using the same process,” Skokowski said. “We have prints that look like fabric, that look like book covers, really colorful prints, really minimalist black and white prints.”
The exhibit has a special local connection. Chico State alum Max Valentine, who received a bachelor’s in arts in 2015, is now a master printer at Paulson Fontaine Press and contributed some of the prints currently on display.
“It's a really nice story, I think, for us on campus,” Skokowski said.
Valentine returned to campus last month and led an intaglio workshop for current printmaking students. The final day for the exhibit is on Saturday, Oct. 17.
